Tag Archives: john moorlach

Senator John Moorlach Selects Mercy House As 2018 Nonprofit of the Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 11, 2018

On June 6, Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, took great pleasure in issuing a resolution selecting Mercy House of Santa Ana as the 37th Senatorial District’s 2018 Nonprofit of the Year. The Resolution commends Mercy House “for providing invaluable services to the people of the local area, and applauds it for its long history of community support.” Continue reading→

The FBI confirmed today that a Task Force has been assembled from the FBI, IRS, District Attorney and U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate reports of political campaign corruption in Orange County, California. As America’s most Republican County, it is not surprising that a Democrat Attorney General under a Democrat Administration would put powerful Republican politicians in their cross-hairs. But with Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, a Republican and former Superior Court Judge, as part of the Task Force, my sources believe that over the next two months it is very likely the Supervisors homes will be raided and indictments will be issued for “pay to play” campaign corruption charges.Continue reading→

Board of Supervisors Appoints Jan Grimes as Orange County Auditor-Controller

SANTA ANA, CA— Supervisor Shawn Nelson, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, today announced the appointment of Jan Grimes to the position of Orange County Auditor-Controller. Jan Grimes will continue her service to the County with her extensive background as being the current Chief Deputy Auditor-Controller.

“We commenced a search because Jan originally wasn’t interested in the elected position. The benefits of being an elected are not as good as being a staff executive, but Jan made the decision we wouldn’t have asked her to make. Her unique status maintains continuity, yet still allows the idea of a selection to take place without any candidate given the unfair advantage of incumbency,” said Nelson. Continue reading→

Regular OCP Blog readers have observed we usually preface anything we use from the Voice of OC as attributed to the “union-funded” Blog. It’s important to understand that the Orange County Employees Association at least partially funds their operation, although no one’s ever learned how much — the union won’t announce it and there are no web links between the two. The Voice does not sell advertising, and lists sponsors including the AP, Californians Aware, HealthyCal.org, California Watch and PBS SoCal. Per its website, it appears to have at least seven staffers at its Santa Ana office.

UPDATE: Supervisor Todd Spitzer now says that he is going to ask the Supervisors to reconsider restaurant letter grade health ratings! Thank you Supervisor Spitzer!

Despite a warning from the county grand jury, the Orange County Board of Supervisors declined, back in December of 2008, to impose a letter grading system designed to inform would-be diners about the health safety record of restaurants, according to the L.A. Times.

Supervisor Janet Nguyen cast the key vote against the letter grading system for restaurants. I broke the news afterwards that O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s husband, Tom Bonikowski, owned a Lee’s Sandwiches franchise in Stanton that had been fined many times by the O.C. HCA. She never reported that when she voted against the letter grade ratings – and it blew up in the press. Bonikowski has since sold the restaurant. Continue reading→

Reportedly over 800 Orange County residents have sent in applications to become the next Orange County Clerk-Recorder. But will any of them really have a chance – or will the seat go to a political appointment?

Former State Senator Dick Ackerman and former State Assemblyman Chris Norby, both Republicans from Fullerton, could be the leaders of the pack. (Ackerman now lives in Irvine).

I am told that Ackerman will likely hire Laura Cunningham, who served as former Supervisor Bill Campbell’s Chief of Staff, if he gets selected to serve as Clerk-Recorder. Continue reading→

To refresh your memory, you may want to reread MOORLACH UPDATE — Closed Sessions — March 14, 2012, which I am providing below. The reason I refer to this UPDATE is that I was unable to comment publicly on this issue until a thorough investigation had been concluded. The District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, and his staff completed their investigation and arrested Santa Ana Councilman and former Orange County employee Carlos Bustamante yesterday evening. Continue reading→

When Supervisor John Moorlach, who is the current Chairman of the O.C. Board of Supervisors, suggested in January that we turn the defunct bus station into a permanent homeless shelter, I suggested, “Why not set up a permanent encampment for the homeless over at the Great Park in Irvine? They have plenty of space. I am sure the OCTA can set up a bus line to give them rides to their new home.”

Apparently Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido read my post. He told the O.C. Register this week that “Long term the Great Park, whose board he sits on, could become a resource, providing space for housing and a rehabilitation center.” Continue reading→

The OC Commission to End Homelessness voted to encourage the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) to give the County and the City of Santa Ana more time to address the city’s concerns, with regard to turning a vacant bus station in downtown Santa Ana into a shelter for the homeless, according to the O.C. Board of Supervisors Chairman John Moorlach’s blog.

Moorlach wrote that “The original recommendation was simply to encourage the County to purchase the Santa Ana Transit Station. In an effort to provide good dialogue, I did reach out to Acting City Manager Paul Walters earlier this week to inform him of the agenda item at this morning’s meeting (Paul is also a member of the Commission). You can see from the Voice of OC what happened after the heads up. For the record, I abstained on the vote because I am on the Board of Supervisors and the Board of OCTA.”Continue reading→

(Santa Ana, CA) — The Orange County Board of Supervisors has appointed Frank Ospino to serve as the County’s Public Defender. His appointment to the positionwas effective January 27, 2012.Ospino has served the County as Interim Public Defender since August of 2011. Hehas held the progressive positions of Deputy Public Defender, Senior Deputy PublicDefender, Assistant Public Defender, and Senior Assistant Public Defender over the course of his 24-year career with the department. Continue reading→

New Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Moorlach has challenged “officials from the city of Santa Ana over his plans to use a defunct bus station in the midst of Santa Ana’s downtown to feed, and potentially house, homeless people,” according to the Voice of OC.

Our County government has done a poor job of serving the homeless. They freeze at night for lack of beds and four of them were killed in recent weeks by a serial killer. But hasn’t the City of Santa Ana been impacted enough by this? Continue reading→

The letter below was delivered to the County Board of Supervisors by Jamie Ross, Deputy Clerk to the Board by Rob Richardson, Assistant Chief Executive Officer – prior to this morning’s Board meeting, on behalf of Zeke Hernandez, the President of the Santa Ana LULAC Council #147, regarding apparently racist comments made by most of the O.C. Supervisors at a recent board meeting.

Okay, so Janet Nguyen is REALLY stupid–I mean, stupider than what we already knew. Unlike the other supervisors, she knows exactly what Latino Health Access is about–she received an award from them a couple of years ago, according to sources who requested anonymity. In addition, Nguyen was present at a LHA community fair highlighted in Bill Moyers’ Journal back in 2009 where LHA head America Bracho specifically said her organization, while obviously concerned about Latinos in SanTana, helps ALL. Nguyen can’t excuse playing the dumb innocent in this story, although it’s hardly hard for her to do so.

On behalf of our general membership, I strongly urge the Board of Supervisors to call upon fellow Supervisors John Moorlach and Shawn Nelson to apologize for their comments that were meant to belittle the great work Latino Health Access has accomplished over the past 18 years in Orange County .

That Supervisor John Moorlach stopped a very normal process because he did not like the use of the word promotora in the language of the mental health outreach agreement. Clearly Supervisor Moorlach this time has stooped so low as to suggest the county to “hold up” critical services to persons who are in need of these mental health services by suggesting a non-English word should be removed for an English word.

Of course this was uncalled for – but then for Supervisor Shawn Nelson to be so up-front with his statement that he would lean towards what many would say is a blatant attempt to get the message across, that is, change your name or you wouldn’t get my vote. Santa Ana LULAC is now asking, “How many Latinos and Latinas did Shawn Nelson ask to support and vote for him as Orange County Supervisor? The answer is plenty, because he had two Latinas as opponents in pursuit of the same elected position.

While we recognize that it can be difficult to serve as a public servant, we urge You Chairman Campbell to assist our community to quickly mend things in the best way possible. Santa Ana LULAC recognizes your great leadership as Chairman and that you will be taking steps to have the full Board recognize that this incident should have been avoided.

I wish to thank you in advance for your ability to get things right; please contact me at 714-661-4428 for any developments for a positive closure to this unfortunate incident.

After An Extremely Short Deliberation, All 6 State Supreme Court Justices Reject The County Of Orange’s Petition For Review Of Their Legal Case That Had Already Been Unanimously Tossed Out Of Both Appellate And Superior Court
SAN FRANCISCO – After taking only 6 working days to deliberate, the California State Supreme Court today unanimously rejected the County of Orange’s appeal of their lawsuit to overturn 3% at 50 pension benefits for Orange County Deputy Sheriffs (COUNTY OF ORANGE v. ASSOCIATION OF ORANGE COUNTY DEPUTY SHERIFFS et al., Case #S191218).

The unanimous decision brings to a close an over three-year, $2.5+ million dollar legal effort by County Supervisor John Moorlach and his former Chief of Staff and “legal advisor,” Mario Mainero, to roll back the pensions of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.

The County of Orange filed their controversial lawsuit in February 2008, despite having three different outside law firms they had hired for legal counsel, warn them they could not win such a case. They were thrown out of Superior Court twice in 2009 without even a trial and unanimously thrown out of Appellate Court on a 3 – 0 vote this last January.

All six of the State Supreme Court justices (there is presently one vacancy) were appointed by Republican governors. They had 90 days to decide whether to take the case up and formally review the Appellate Court’s decision. They came to a quick, unanimous decision in only 6 working days.

“The Board of Directors of AOCDS and I have been telling the County Board of Supervisors for almost four years now that they didn’t have a case and could not win such a lawsuit,” said Wayne Quint, President of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs (AOCDS). “We repeatedly told them at every turn of their effort that they were wrong on the facts and wrong on the law.”

“John Moorlach and Mario Mainero owe the taxpayers of Orange County a formal apology. They have spent over $2.5 million in public funds on a political vendetta that their own attorneys told them right from the beginning they could not win.”

“The Deputy Sheriffs Association now plans to file in court for complete payment of our four years worth of attorneys fees for this frivolous, mean spirited lawsuit. By the time everything is over, the vindictive political judgment of John Moorlach and Mario Mainero will have cost the County a tremendous amount of time and money. It is both sad and unfortunate — and a textbook example of abuse of our legal system.”

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach has a plan to move the Orange County seat out of Santa Ana – to a 100 acre parcel the County owns next to the O.C. Great Park, on what used to be the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, according to the Voice of OC blog.

The scary thing, for those of us who live in Santa Ana, is that Moorlach might be able to pull this off. I would expect Supervisor Janet Nguyen to oppose the move, as her district includes Santa Ana. But the rest of the Supervisors have no reason to oppose Moorlach’s scheme, except maybe for Supervisor Shawn Nelson who does have a law office located in Santa Ana.

Moorlach could however team up with Supervisor Bill Campbell, who has nothing to lose as he will term out in two years, and Supervisor Pat Bates, who represents south Orange County, to make this happen. If they believe the County will save money by doing this, they will act to dump Santa Ana. As it currently stands, there are a number of big County leases coming up for renewal in Santa Ana. Now might be an interesting time for them to try to get out from under those leases.

Moorlach ticked off the property’s advantages: freeway and train accessibility and ability to feed off of the Great Park development. “If the Great Park is ever developed, it would be an incredible location,” he said, in the Voice of OC article.

This would of course be a huge blow to the City of Santa Ana. The County government provides a lot of good-paying jobs and leases a lot of space in our downtown. The flip side is that, with the development of the One Broadway Tower and the proposed light rail system, the City of Santa Ana might find itself able to lease out all that space, but that is only assuming that our economy picks up. It is hard to believe that will happen in the next two years.

Former State Senator Joe Dunn previously tried to move the Federal Court of Appeals to Irvine, but he was punked by Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who succeeded in keeping the Court of Appeals in Santa Ana. Dunn is now the Chairman of the Board at the Voice of OC blog.

Pulido will now have to roll up his sleeves and take on Moorlach, who remains a very popular Republican politician here in the O.C. Pulido is an ally of Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, and Pulido serves on the O.C. Great Park’s Board of Directors. These connections should help him fend off Moorlach, but there is no assurance that Agran won’t go all in with the plan to move the County Seat to Irvine.

I wonder if the folks in Irvine realize that taking our County seat will also mean accepting hundreds of homeless people?